


get yer ya-ya's out

by Harmonica_Smile (Rescue_Remedy)



Series: Domestic Blindness [4]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Still Have Powers, Archery, Bonding over arrows not swords, Canon Elements, Canon Related, Complete, Gen, Jealous Sharpshooter Usopp, Kyudo, Kyudou, Kyuudou, Long Bow Archery, Pop Greens (One Piece), Post-Canon, What do archers wear under their hakama?, broships - Freeform, platonic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-27
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:53:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25158808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rescue_Remedy/pseuds/Harmonica_Smile
Summary: When Trafalgar glided out, Zoro following, the clothes and the longbow suited him perfectly. Nodachi, bows, arrows—they weren't the same! Usopp had never seen Law handle a gun, but the guy fought on all fields and fronts, so the kyudo longbow and shaft had probably been part of his training too. Usopp was a little jealous. Zoro washistraining partner. Sharpshooting, his game.**Sorry to subscribers/regular readers. Backdating and sharing some of the G-T rated chapters of my long fics for those who don't read dark, and also re-uploading deleted work.
Relationships: Roronoa Zoro & Trafalgar D. Water Law, Roronoa Zoro & Usopp, Trafalgar D. Water Law & Usopp
Series: Domestic Blindness [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1558741
Comments: 5
Kudos: 6





	get yer ya-ya's out

**Author's Note:**

  * For [quiet_or_die](https://archiveofourown.org/users/quiet_or_die/gifts).



> **spoilers** for chapter 28 of a _A few drops of holy cuckold_ , if you intend to read it AND if you do make sure you heed the warnings. In this AU, Luffy's the pirate king with a brand new world, but some of the old laws were never changed, and certain elements want to round up the ex-slaves and reintroduce slavery. That is _not_ the focus of this piece, but just to give you some background. Law is recovering from a captivity where a new tattoo was inked in over an existing arm tattoo by a dark Marco. Not overly angsty (just a spritzer or two).
> 
> * * *
> 
> Men and women in their kyudo wear, just in case you were wondering: The [first](http://rei-saionji.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/6344064251_e292c72a07_z.jpg) is a creative commons pic, and gives you an idea of stance, though not so much on the hakama. The second is [ stylised](https://previews.123rf.com/images/isaxar/isaxar1807/isaxar180700008/105327513-japanese-kyudo-archer-on-fuji-landscape-with-sakura-cherry-tree-vector-illustration-meaning-of-the-b.jpg), and no way a certain character looked that cool. But it will give you an idea. If you google kyudo images, you'll get a better sense, but hopefully these help with the chapter. If there's a bit of vocab you're unsure of, the end notes have some info.

* * *

**get yer ya-ya's out**

* * *

Usopp was a little jealous. Usually Zoro was his kyudo partner, both stepping out in the black hakama, and the crisp white gi; the elegant ties of the hakama folded to the side or slipped under the bands at the front of the trousers, as if wearing a skirt. True, the long bow, the _yumi_ , seemed too tall for him, really, it almost dwarfed Zoro, and he had to be careful not to trip over the voluminous pleats and folds of the pants.

When Trafalgar glided out, the clothes and the bow suited him perfectly. Long swords, bows, arrows—they weren't the same! He'd never seen Law handle a gun, but the guy fought on all fields and fronts, so the kyudo bow and shaft had probably been part of his training too. Even so, each of the seven pleats of the hakama had a story and Law told them well.

The safe house was peaceful. A Moreton Bag Fig tree dug its mighty roots into the ground, the shaded earth below it smooth and free of grass and most foliage. Law and Zoro had the targets set up where Usopp and he usually practiced. Zoro swigged from a long neck bottle.

Law healed fast but was still on the mend and didn't need to give the swordsman any edge, so he sipped a lemon drink. His lip lifted from the sourness and from acid sinking into abrasions left from his teeth cutting into his skin as fists had slammed into his face.

Both placed their bottle and glass on the bench with a measured carelessness. Law tipped up his hat and shook out the legs of the hakama as he stepped into the yard. Zoro the same.

Zoro maintained tradition with the white gi underneath his hakama off one shoulder, nipple on display. Master of one art, master of all. Sanji would bawl at him to get dressed if he was there. He'd be right. The swordsman was only practicing. His nips…nipple really shouldn't be on display. He scratched at his chest. Belched.

The safe house's supply of martial arts wear was minimal at best, so Law had borrowed a gi that must've fit a narrow-chested but long-trunked long-leg at some stage. It filled the side gaps of the hakama nicely, covering his tush, Usopp guessed. A muted drop of blood stained a sleeve, and the pits were light yellow. It wasn't pristine, but was clean and sat well.

Zoro wore tabi and zori on his feet, and If he'd been indoors he'd be barefoot, Zoro style. Law wore flip-flops, black rubber separating his big toe and next. The guy was too much, but Usopp admitted the tattoos on the backs of his hands and tops of his feet matched the simple black and white uniform. In concept, there wasn't that much between flipflops and the straw sandals.

You wouldn't even know Law was hanging loose and easy under all that material. Nothing got in the way of budoh. It made sense. Commando was just a lot more breezy in these humid kinds of weather. The long shirt—the gi—and the hakama got stuffy.

Or maybe Law had wrapped his schlong in a fundoshi. Some did. But the traditional g-string for martial arts and festival mayhem wasn't something you found just lying around. The safe house wasn't a dojo. Plus fundoshi could get uncomfortable wedged into your crack. Smelly too, but who cared about that when it kept you cool?

Zoro was definitely enjoying the breeze. Yet another thing the cook would chew him out for. That said, conflict was always a possibility. Usopp had seen him tie the folds of the undergarment at times.

He looked on from the tree, avoiding the sticky seeds caught on the fig's broad branches, the sun streaking his arms and hair; blending with his yellow t-shirt.

Law and Zoro powdered their hands with rice husk talc and pulled the three-fingered leather gloves, softened from wear, onto their drawing hands, and took their stance, facing two targets set up at the end of the yard. Lifting the arrow and bow above their heads, setting, drawing—then lowering them, to centre and line up with the target and tune into their own energies. The shafts sat just below their cheekbones.

A whipbird pierced the quiet with its call. The back door of the safe house opened as that day's kitchen staff put out a crate of empty bottles for later pick up. A vacuum cleaner fired up, and both men tensed slightly as a car drove past outside the walls.

They drew the bow back further, aimed for the two separate targets—Law's technique was good. Both concentrated on their bodies' alignment with the ultimate trajectory of the feathered bamboo arrows.

Everything taut, Usopp held his breath as the inked fingers, Zoro's calloused hand, let go of the strings and arrows, almost as an afterthought, aiming high. What? Aiming _high_. Zoro too, shooting the _ya_ into the air at the same time. Both with precision, but Zoro a little faster and a slice more exact. Important in combat.

 _How?_ Usopp tumbled from the tree. And the Tabasco starburst he'd catapulted still managed to open over the two because they'd sensed a threat but didn't know what kind. With the hint of chili on the wind and the danger of burning eyes, Law formed a room and teleported himself and Zoro and their gear a few centimetres away from the downfall. It was a still day. Then he stuck his arm into the path of the fallout.

"No!" Usopp yelled. Law was going to kill him if the pop green didn't take him out first.

Gi were short sleeved, and Law didn't wear the longer black arm protectors. He was a visitor, a fugitive, at the safe house, and they only had so many supplies of bushido bullshit. But he tipped his fingers in _takt_ and drew all the chili and phosphorus and whatever the hell else Usopp had mixed together to one area. Usopp knew what it was.

Quaking, he looked on as Law dispelled the… _dispelled_ the…. What? He dispelled… _Nononnoono_. Masochism was fine. Masochism was fine. Some people got into masochism, didn't they? Nami liked folks who were into masochi…He dispelled the goddamn…. If it was your kink, it wasfine, it was fine, _it was fine_. But permanent disfiguration? He dispelled his goddamn dome.

"Law!"

Zoro raised his hand like a traffic cop. Usopp quieted.

Law turned to him for a second, then pinched his eyes in pain before reopening them to watch the mixture discolour his skin.

Zoro wasn't sure whether he should step in or just let the surgeon do what he was doing. Appeared to be in control. But who ever knew with Law? Usopp's concoctions could do serious harm. He'd witnessed it. Those leopard eyes were charred through with certainty though.

"Mother of God," Law drew in his breath, but didn't brush or force the mixture away. Usopp scrambled over.

"The fuck,'sop?" Zoro growled, but he couldn't be angry at the guy for long, even if he had just threatened to coat Law and himself in the equivalent of caustic soda.

"Why'd you shoot it? Why'd you guys shoot it?" Usopp pulled at his hair.

Law and Zoro looked at the sharpshooter, puzzled.

"Flying projectile. Unknown. Incoming. What else you gonna do?" Zoro said.

"Let it hit the target," Usopp wailed, turning back to Law, who sat down now. The smell of his flesh burning was a thing, and he bent over, spreading the tented legs of the hakama, and pressed his good hand down on his inner thigh as he bore the pain.

"Us? We were in your sights? You think we'd let that happen?" Zoro sipped his warm beer.

"As if I'd aim for you." He'd totally aim for them. But not with something so lethal. "I was aiming for the bull's eye, the target, the _mato_ , so when your arrows hit it. Poof! Bang! Surprise!"

Law had a small room up now, and looked a little pale, sweat rising along his neck, as he worked on not extracting the powder, but making sure it didn't eat too far into his skin.

"Huh. Real big surprise."

Usopp turned to the quiet words, but Law wasn't looking his way. The surgeon's voice maintained the promise of bad things in dark alleyways after gambling your paycheck away. Only the staccato rise and drop of breath at the end of his statement revealed his discomfort.

Some of his tattoos had been defaced across the years but they still covered most of his upper body and arms, and the shivering spice attack had burnt into the skin at the base of the one on his right bicep.

"Gonna do that with the one on your arse?" Zoro slouched back on the bench, wiping his bow with a dry cloth. The humidity ate into the bamboo if you let it.

If looks could kill.

Zoro laughed. He finished his beer before resuming maintenance of his equipment. Doflamingo, the trial, Crocodile, had been very clear about where Law had been branded and why.

Law dropped the room, took a swallow of the lemon and looked out into the yard. His arm hurt, but he'd been through worse, and the ache wouldn't increase. The damage was done. He picked up the long bow and the ya from where he'd rested it against the bench.

"You know God-ya," he said as he fit the arrow to the bow.

Usopp's stomach tightened. He rummaged in his bag for a few accessories that could be hurled as weapons. "Law, really, I _didn'tmeananything_ by it. And _you're_ the guy who can separate sand from salt." He took a deep breath and folded his arms. "So don't blame me for your self-mutilation kink." A decisive nod. His lips fighting the urge to smile. Nerves.

Law lined up. He shouldn't be speaking, Zoro thought, and Law would've agreed with him, in principle, but times were shitty now. Tradition kept him a slave. It could go fuck itself.

"This arrow, this ya, needs to be specially made. So you know what I call the maker of this arrow? How I address her?"

Law glanced at Usopp for a second. No. He wasn't a master. He was competent. He respected the tools of defence and attack, of meditation and reflection, but he wasn't beholden to them. Except Kikoku. She got as jealous as hell on days like this. Maybe even more riled up than Usopp, though she didn't drop too many surprise attacks on him.

"Heh." Zoro also stood.

"The feathers she uses, just the right balance, y'know." Law raised the bow and arrow over his head. Zoro did the same. "The way she cuts the bamboo handles the humidity so well." He breathed, centred, aimed. "Still have to be wiped down though, but Ya-ya is easily the best arrow maker on all of these islands."

Usopp knew. He went to the same artisan.

"Huh? What's up with you and Ya-ya? You just…?" You just cooked half the skin off your fucking arm and now you're talking about how you greet craftsmen? And he thought his captain was crazy.

"You're a funny guy, Law," Zoro muttered, also breaking with tradition as he lined up, centred, and settled into his core.

Law released, hit the target. Not a bullseye but that didn't matter.

" _Sha!_ " All three shouted as if it were the next step in breathing.

Zoro, after letting everything flow and focus, aimed, eyes shut. It hit the target of course.

" _Sha!_ "

Bullseye. But that wasn't the point.

Usopp didn't notice this one time he was unified with Law. Anything that hit the target was acknowledged. That was the way.

Law walked across the yard to fetch the arrows.

"Ya," Usopp added under his breath. "Ya-ya. Ha." The guy was funny. Law could crack jokes. Though you'd never know it. Did he crack a joke? He looked across at Zoro, confused.

"He'll heal," his crewmate said.

"Why'd he do that?" Usopp hadn't wanted to hurt either one of them, not that seriously. Law's skin would scar.

"Had a vector under his flesh that needed gouging."

Usopp looked across the yard. Law shouldn't be fetching Zoro's arrow either, but in true times of battle and attack propriety could get you nullified. His arm was red and angry where the powder had seared. It'd leave a smoky cloud that Shachi might be able to work around some day.

Usopp scraped his fingers over his head trying to remember what had been there. Law was proud of his tatts. Why would he disfigure them, even if it was just the edge of a design? True, when he first saw the doc, back from a sudden absence, he hadn't paid that much attention. Not a pleasant stay from what he gathered.

The Heart captain was close with Robin and Zoro, in their own ways. Was Luffy's ex. Chopper's colleague. Despite all his achievements all these years later, Usopp still thought one look from Law could obliterate him. They hadn't struck up a close friendship, but neither was there dislike.

He tapped his arm. That's what it was. There'd been a flare of blue, out of place amongst the swirling monochrome.

Law had a few settings. Glower, ablaze, and low burn. He returned with the arrows, handing Zoro's to him and placed his equipment again on the bench. Usopp sat on the edge. Chopper really got into this guy, but Chopper was cute. Kaya thought he, Usopp, was cute. Perhaps. But he wasn't a reindeer.

Zoro rummaged through the silk bag housing the powder and cloths, extra strings, anything a practitioner should need. Law missed his own bags. He had two. One marked with the crew's Jolly Roger, and the other with the fish Bepo loved. He kept them at the Hearts headquarters, so they should still be intact.

Zoro passed a spare cloth to Law as he sat. They wiped the arrows and bows, steadily and easily, removing resin and moisture and dust. Usopp kicked his feet out. He'd fetched the first two arrows and returned them to the rightful owners. Maintenance was one of his favourite parts of practice.

"You're a sharpshooter, God-ya," Law said, staring at, but not really taking in, the film of dirt from the yard over his feet as he continued to clean. The pain of his new injury was dull and constant like the breeze that had picked up now, moving the leaves above them. "You're seven years younger than me." And he hadn't experienced Law's levels of hell, as far as he was aware. Though anyone who'd travelled the new world had been on the receiving end of more than one beatdown. It went with the territory.

That's right, Usopp thought, Law was an old man, but he'd aged too. Was he calling him immature? He didn't have to be told. But admirals were geezers and they were powerful.

"You'll always be competition for him." Law tipped his head Zoro's way. Zoro had finished cleaning and rewrapped his bow, re-bagged his arrows, secured his glove. Arms splayed behind his head, he napped, eye closed, one ear open. "But it's just practice for me." It wasn't about rivalry, but dick measuring contests were unavoidable.

Zoro smiled and Usopp almost clamped Law's new wound in a show of comradeship. Maybe he really did think the great Captain Usopp was a god. Law's eyes narrowed. Ooh, that one would shrivel pickled plums. He sat on his hands.

Law wrapped the cloth around the bow. What was it with this crew and their desire to intensify pain? Curiosity to see if new limits could be reached? Dealing with them took perseverance to a new level.

Zoro knew the surgeon was in idle mode, but still on high alert—concentrating on him and Usopp, the activity in the house, worms burrowing in the earth. Listening for any crack of wood, or change in the air currents. But they were all like that, and had to be like that.

All the same, he'd taken a step back into himself. Law was one step closer to being Law. If anyone was gonna fuck up his skin, it would be himself.

  


**Author's Note:**

> End Notes:
> 
> I'll just play it safe and link a how-to drawing of [fundoshi](https://jref.com/attachments/how-to-wear-fundoshi-jpg.20747/), but if you google fundoshi and festival, or something like that, you'll find the type of fundoshi that Law and Zoro might or might not be wearing ;-).
> 
> I'm sure you all know about zori and tabi, but just in case you don't both are in this [link](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/71/5a/e9/715ae97869ef2c491cc7de4e38fa1edf.jpg).
> 
> Fundoshi are meant to be really comfortable, actually, but I wouldn't know. And I'm sure you're aware, but Law's _-ya_ is kind of like referring to someone by their trade or distinguishing characteristic (usually). So that's where the ya-ya came into it. The kanji used is the kanji that denotes a shop. There's a good discussion about it [here](https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/22719/why-does-trafalgar-d-law-use-ya-%e3%82%84%e5%b1%8b-suffix-while-addressing-others). Sorry. ~~Law can't help it~~ I can't help it with the puns. Ja ja, I know. I'll show myself out.  
> The bridge of Law's feet are inked too, as per an idea I saw in a dj, which is linked to in _Repossession_. Drop a comment if you want to know more.
> 
> I'm also sure I've got a mass of kyudo and chemistry stuff wrong. Please forgive me if so, or drop a line.
> 
> Anyway, **thanks for reading!**. Would love to know your thoughts. If you liked it, kudos are more than welcome.
> 
> My [tumblr.](https://chromatic-lamina.tumblr.com/)


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